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1Pe_2:21 gives the ground of the exhortation to bear undeserved suffering patiently, by a reference to the sufferings of Christ.
εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ ἐκλήθητε ] εἰς τοῦτο refers to εἰ ἀγαθοποιοῦντες … ὑπομενεῖτε . Many interpreters incorrectly make it apply only to suffering as such; but, as Hemming rightly remarks: omnes pii vocati sunt, ut patienter injuriam ferant.
The construction with εἰς occurs frequently; cf. Col_3:15; 2Th_2:14.
In harmony with the connection, οἱ οἰκέται is to be thought of as the subject to ἐκλήθητε ; accordingly it is the slaves in the first instance, not the Christians in general, who are addressed (as in chap. 1Pe_3:9; 1Pe_3:14; 1Pe_3:17); but as this κληθῆναι applies to them not as slaves but as believers, it holds true at the same time of all Christians.
ὅτι καὶ Χριστὸς ἔπαθεν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ] ὅτι : such suffering is part of a Christian’s calling, for Christ also suffered: ἔπαθεν is here the emphatic word; and with it καί also must be joined (which Fronmüller erroneously interprets by “even”). Wiesinger incorrectly takes καί with ἔπαθεν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν in this sense, that, as Christ suffered for us, “so we should endure affliction for Him, for His sake, and for His honour and glory in the world,” thus introducing a thought foreign to the context. The obligation to suffer under which we who are Christ’s people are laid, from the very fact that Christ also suffered, is for us all the greater that the sufferings of Christ were ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν (not: ἀνθʼ ἡμῶν , but “for our advantage”), and therefore such as enable us to follow the example which He has left us in His sufferings. Inasmuch as ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν implies that Christ suffered not for His own sins, but for ours, we are no doubt justified in recognising these sufferings as undeserved, but not in concluding, with Hofmann, that ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν is meant to mark only the undeservedness of Christ’s sufferings.
ὑμῖν ὑπολιμπάνων ὑπογραμμόν ] ὑπολιμπάνω , ἅπ . λεγ . Another form of ὑπολείπω (used of the leaving behind at death, Jdt_8:7). Bengel: in abitu ad patrem. ὑπογραμμός ( ἅπ . λεγ .): specimen, quod imitentur, ut pictores novitiis exemplaria dant, ad quae inter pingendum respiciant: equivalent in sense to ὑπόδειγμα , Joh_13:15 ( τύπος ; 2Th_3:9). It is not Christ’s life in general that is here presented by way of example, but the patience which He showed in the midst of undeserved sufferings.[151] The participle is connected with ἔπαθεν ὑπ . ὑμ . as giving the nearer definition of the latter: He thus suffered, as in doing so to leave you an example, withal to the end that, etc.[152]
ἵνα ἐπακολουθήσητε τοῖς ἴχνεσιν αὐτοῦ ] Sicut prior metaphora a pictoribus et scriptoribus, ita haec posterior petita est a viae duce (Gerhard); with ἐπακολ . cf. 1Ti_5:10; 1Ti_5:24.
ἴχνος , besides here, in Rom_4:12 ( στοιχεῖν τοῖς ἴχνεσι ) and 2Co_12:18 ( περιπατεῖν τοῖς ἴχνεσι ).
[151] Wherever Scripture presents Christ as an example, it does so almost always with reference to His self-abasement in suffering and death; Php_2:5; Joh_13:15; Joh_15:12; 1Jn_3:16; Heb_12:2. Only in 1Jn_2:6 is Christ presented as an example in the more general sense.
[152] Hofmann wrongly asserts that “ ἵνα stands only in place of an infinitive clause, as after ἐντολή (Joh_13:34), βουλή (Act_27:42),” inasmuch as “ ὑπογραμμός is no more than a direction to do likewise.” But this interpretation of ὑπογραμμός is erroneous, and therefore ἵνα ἐπακολουθήσητε cannot be resolved into an infinitive clause.